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A PC Games Blog by Tim and IanMon, 19 Mar 2018 12:51:40 +0000enhourly1http://wordpress.com/https://s2.wp.com/i/buttonw-com.png1337speakhttps://1337speak.wordpress.com
The Generations of Gaminghttps://1337speak.wordpress.com/2007/01/10/the-generations-of-gaming/
https://1337speak.wordpress.com/2007/01/10/the-generations-of-gaming/#commentsWed, 10 Jan 2007 20:29:40 +0000http://1337speak.wordpress.com/2007/01/10/the-generations-of-gaming/I have been thinking about this for a long time, and I do believe that the future of Gaming will be without interface as graphics reach new heights and gamers demand more innovation.

1st Generation (The Past): Information is given to the user in the form of text. Enviroments and problems are described to the player, and the player responds by typing. No immersion. Think Zork.

2nd Generation (The Present): There is a Forground and background for the player. The background shows the enviroment of the player, while the foreground shows text and interface to help the player analysis their situation. Can become immersive.

3rd Generation (The Future): The forground interface is removed. Now all the players needs are displayed in the background for complete immersion and cinematic gameplay. Need to check your ammo? Check the ammo gauge on your gun, or the arrows in your bag, or check how many bullets you have in your magazine! How do you know your player is tired? Because he is breathing heavy and running slower. What about your health? Simply look down at your body, see any bleeding or cuts?

Oh course this is all speculation, but everyone I’ve talked to does believe this would be a huge step to immersing the players and reinvent how games are played.

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]]>https://1337speak.wordpress.com/2007/01/10/the-generations-of-gaming/feed/1Tim McCurdyAttempting to play Dark Messiahhttps://1337speak.wordpress.com/2006/12/29/attempting-to-play-dark-messiah/
https://1337speak.wordpress.com/2006/12/29/attempting-to-play-dark-messiah/#commentsFri, 29 Dec 2006 13:55:15 +0000http://1337speak.wordpress.com/2006/12/29/attempting-to-play-dark-messiah/Well, Dark Messiah demo was great fun but however the game is a little troublesome. Bugs in the installer, bugs in the starting up, crashing in the game. Definetly needs an cleanup. If I can get it to work I will be doing a review.

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]]>https://1337speak.wordpress.com/2006/12/29/attempting-to-play-dark-messiah/feed/1Tim McCurdyGuild Wars hits 3 million soldhttps://1337speak.wordpress.com/2006/12/18/guild-wars-hits-3-million-sold/
https://1337speak.wordpress.com/2006/12/18/guild-wars-hits-3-million-sold/#respondMon, 18 Dec 2006 12:45:00 +0000http://1337speak.wordpress.com/2006/12/18/guild-wars-hits-3-million-sold/Guild Wars has just hit 3 million units sold, although this sounds impressive, and it is, it isn’t as impressive as you may think. This includes expansions, which users like me have bought the original and both expansions. Realistically there are probably 1.5 million accounts. Watch out World of Warcraft!

]]>https://1337speak.wordpress.com/2006/12/18/guild-wars-hits-3-million-sold/feed/0Tim McCurdyMass Effect falls into the ‘Orgasm’ catagory of game engineshttps://1337speak.wordpress.com/2006/12/11/mass-effect-falls-into-the-orgasm-catagory-of-game-engines/
https://1337speak.wordpress.com/2006/12/11/mass-effect-falls-into-the-orgasm-catagory-of-game-engines/#respondMon, 11 Dec 2006 22:19:35 +0000http://1337speak.wordpress.com/2006/12/11/mass-effect-falls-into-the-orgasm-catagory-of-game-engines/Along with the likes of Crysis and ET: Quake Wars, Mass effect definitely joins the next gen orgasm inducing game engines, as shown by a recent video, comprising of entirely in game engine footage. Bioware are kings of the RPG genre as shown by the excellent Knights of the Old Republic. Allot of classic RPG components are seen to be present here, multiple choice dialogues (now more interactive seeming than ever), customizable weapons and equipment and a huge amount of realistic locations to visit, however it is clear that Mass Effect also introduces many elements of other genres most noticeably the Sci Fi and FPS aspects of the game come across clearly and looking sublime and impressive. Definitely the RPG for all sci fi fans to be looking out for.

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]]>https://1337speak.wordpress.com/2006/12/11/mass-effect-falls-into-the-orgasm-catagory-of-game-engines/feed/0IanFirefly resurrected as MMO title!https://1337speak.wordpress.com/2006/12/08/firefly-resurrected-as-mmo-title/
https://1337speak.wordpress.com/2006/12/08/firefly-resurrected-as-mmo-title/#commentsFri, 08 Dec 2006 17:25:45 +0000http://1337speak.wordpress.com/2006/12/08/firefly-resurrected-as-mmo-title/The Sci Fi series famous for being butchered by fox, cancelled, and then succeeding so well on DVD that it warranted a good feature length film, is now in development as an MMO! Firefly is the collision of the trains from sci-fiville and weasternburg at awesome speed. Fans of the series should be rather excited about now, but to us, the game is critically dependant on series creator Joss Whedon and his involvement. I’m sure the firefly universe is big enough for an MMO and god knows how many expansions, but expanding the universe wont work unless the firefly feeling is kept.

]]>https://1337speak.wordpress.com/2006/10/29/guild-wars-nightfall-released/feed/0Tim McCurdyReview: Company of Heroeshttps://1337speak.wordpress.com/2006/10/11/review-company-of-heroes/
https://1337speak.wordpress.com/2006/10/11/review-company-of-heroes/#commentsWed, 11 Oct 2006 23:47:54 +0000http://1337speak.wordpress.com/2006/10/11/review-company-of-heroes/Damn oppression, pushing us down and telling us what to do… Nazi… Teachers… wait, no I need to keep on topic… damn homework. Company of Heroes is the latest title to be fed out by Relic, the makers of classics Dawn of War and Homeworld – and like both those titles, this game is gorgeous and more unique than any other title out there. Relic are masters.

As the front cover and title display, Company of Heroes is a World War 2 game(all WW2 games are like that… Call of Duty, Medal of Honor, Band of Brothers. I’m not sure who started it, but they should either be thanked or shot.). You can fight as either the Allies or Axis in Skirmish mode, but the campaign is based from an allied perspective because to be honest, after D-Day the Axis campaign would be frustrating. Many of the campaign missions have excellent cutscenes similar to ones in Homeworld, and are generally good missions with primary, secondary and bonus objectives so you can do as little and as much as you feel inclined to.

Gameplay wise, it plays unlike any other RTS. Everything is too scale (rare), Tanks actually are immortal to machine gun fire (very rare), Tanks kill soldiers in one shot (extremely rare) and soldiers act as if they were FPS AI (unheard of). Seriously, each soldier in the battlefield will try to take cover and shoot in a similar fashion to AI in Call of Duty, which makes strategy completely different from normal RTS games. No longer do you just tell soldiers to kill each other, and watch as they stand and share fire like organised folk – Now they hide, swear, cry and generally wet themselves in battle unless you help them along with orders to take heavier cover or to “Retreat!”.

The games influences from Dawn of War are obvious, or maybe I should say the engine similarities are obvious. Resources are gathered by taking and holding resource points which provide a constant flow of Manpower, Munitions or Oil. Engineers are your builder squads, and can construct Barracks, Supply Centres and eventually Tank Factories. Based on what I said before, you probably see that tanks dominate the battlefield. However there is a strong rock/paper/scissors formula to the game, so Infantry commanders can dispose of tanks with bazooka squads implaced in buildings for cover. Tanks are also very vulnerable to tank traps and mines. Airborn commander is the second options (Infantry first, Tank last) which allows the commander to call down paratrooper drops and air raids. While this commander may not have as much presence on the ground, his ability to drop swift judgment on an enemy is obvious when you play against or as one. The game follows a very strict advance-digin-holdground-repeat formula to victory, since whoever has the most ground is the most likely to hold it – the first minutes are crucial.

Graphics like all Relic Games are excellent, featuring good polycount, lots of effects and a fair texture resolution. However I don’t think the graphics are good enough to use in first person cutscenes (which Relic did) since characters, while animated nicely, are such a low resolution its laughable. Still it looks excellent in standard RTS view.

Sound is good and atmospheric. Explosive sounds add to the chaos your watching and really draw you in, however while I did find the excessive amount of swearing funny at first, its become irritating: whenever you order a unit to attack he swears, when he’s under attack he swears, when he runs he swears, etc. Soundtrack is traditional for overly dramatic World War 2 music, and fits the bill.

Without a doubt this game is very innovative, which is a little bit of a curse and a blessing. The whole feel of the game is unlike other RTS games which makes you interested and amazed, but also requires you to think harder and relearn the wheel – for some people it may be too easy to play Dawn of War which comes free with Company of Heroes.

How long you play the game really depends on if you enjoy the style, so I recommend downloading the demo first. If you find it fun, then congratulations you’ve found a great game that will entertain for months.

To Conclude, I will say that this game is definitely going to spawn a new style of RTS games for the future because of its unique approach to it. Buy it, and if you don’t like the new style you can play the old with Dawn of War.

Launches detected. Alerts sounding. Nuclear missiles are falling around you. Tokyo hit, 12 million dead. Calcutta hit. 5.4 million dead. Hong Kong hit. 6.9 million dead. Is this the apocalypse? No! It’s DEFCON! The latest gem to be plucked from the brains of Introversion. The developer responsible for under-appreciated classics such as Darwinia and Uplink. Once you get over the thermonuclear genocide your inflicting on your opponent, it’s a game that becomes quite addictive due to its large number of strategic possibility’s available from such a restrictive amount of units.

The game holds a strong link with the old 80’s movie ‘war games’. The one with the hacker who discovers a program that controls nuclear missiles in the US. Like their other titles, Introversions latest project has a strong retro feel to it, with glowing vector graphics depicting a map of the world and a series of icons representing the 5 unit types and 3 building types that make up the game. The graphics may not be the most stunning, but they certainly fit the mood of the game to a tee.

In most games, sound is something that you don’t notice until its gone. Something that can be part of the gameplay and help you play. In DEFCON the sounds become the key factor in creating a realistic and depressing atmosphere that should bring you to near depression the first time you play. Set as a general in a bunker, the sounds feature such exciting classics as; ‘working generator’, ‘eerie dripping’, and don’t forget ‘the slow quite sobs and coughs of those around you, as you hear the low bass rumbling of another city falling to your nuclear holocaust’. Cheery stuff. But it all draws you in to the depressing nature of the game and the message in its gameplay. DEFCON is a game you cannot win.

As long as your morals don’t include *just* 64 million deaths a win. The aim of Defcon is not to protect your silos, win naval battles or take down enemy airfields. The aim of the game is simply to incur the greatest number of civilian casualties to your enemy, while protecting your own populace. This is a near impossible task, and as Introversion put it, you cant win, but maybe you can loose the least. To loose the least you will have to carefully coordinate attacks from your bases and fleets ensuring that your rain of fire falls thick enough to overwhelm you enemy’s defences. Most easily done in real time, you can carefully micromanage every plane bomber and sub as events unfold second by second. But unless you want a very long game, you’ll want to increase the speed to 5, 10 or 20 times the normal speed.

The game unfortunately has one downfall. In its simplicity is the inherent problem of keeping the game interesting. RTS fans may find the lack of unit types and freedom of play uninteresting after several games or so, and the less patient game may find the strategic nature of the game to slow for their liking. However, for the mere price of £10 ($17.50) its well worth what you’re getting. Not even mentioning the numerous graphic mods already bursting out from the community. This is a classic gem of a game that is engaging online and incredibly fun to play against friends.

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]]>https://1337speak.wordpress.com/2006/10/07/review-defcon/feed/2Iandefcon03.pngdefcon02.pngdefcon01.pngHaitushttps://1337speak.wordpress.com/2006/10/03/haitus/
https://1337speak.wordpress.com/2006/10/03/haitus/#respondTue, 03 Oct 2006 17:11:16 +0000http://1337speak.wordpress.com/2006/10/03/haitus/BRB. promise. Bigger and Better.
Including Full coveage of the London Games Festival’s foray into the World Series of VideoGames!
Also with full DEFCON review, Company of Heros review, Frets of Fire feature and more news you read yeasterday! …but opinionated!